The boss has heard them all: The craziest late-to-work excuses

“Better late than never?” I’m not so sure. But, of course, we all have those situations when we just can’t get to work on time, right?

In fact, a new survey by human resources services CareerBuilder of more than 1,000 human resource managers and 800 employees at private-sector companies in the U.S. found that there were many familiar reasons for employees coming in to work late. You’ve heard them. Among the most typical excuses were traffic (51 per cent), oversleeping (31 per cent), the weather (28 per cent) and — my favourite — just being too tired to get out of bed (23 per cent).

None of the explanations is unfamiliar. However, there were a few other reasons for lateness submitted that would certainly raise eyebrows. For example, one employee said “I had morning sickness” which would be understandable, except the employee was a man. Another complained that “… an astrologer warned me of a car accident on a major highway, so I took all back roads, making me an hour late.” A favourite came from a woman who said she was late because her “fake eyelashes were stuck together.” One thing’s for sure: innovation is not dead in America.

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Why many of the best workers aren't burning the midnight oil in the office

Sure, these excuses are funny … but not to employers. A majority of them in the CareerBuilder survey said they expect their employees to be on time every day. So important is this that 42 per cent of employers said they’ve fired an employee because of tardiness. This is not a minor problem in any workplace. Almost 25 per cent of the employees surveyed said they come in late “at least once a month” and 12 per cent are late on a weekly basis.

The good news is that most employees get it. A full 65 per cent of them said they stay later to make up for any tardiness. However, most workers do think it’s time to change how we think about the workday. Almost two-thirds in the survey think that today’s 9-to-5 workday is antiquated, and 88 per cent of them think that the day’s start and end times should be more flexible.